Back in December of 2014, Mikey Nicholls (FKA Nick Miller) of the WWE NXT tag team TM-61 requested and was granted his WWE release. A few months later, Nicholls joined New Japan Pro Wrestling and has been part of their roster ever since.
Mikey Nicholls recently sat down with Andrew Thompson of Post Wrestling to discuss a variety of subjects relating to his professional wrestling career. When asked if the reason he left the black and gold brand of NXT was to be with his family, he confirmed that to be the case.
“Yeah man, because my wife is — she’s a saint,” Nicholls said. “She was with me. We’ve been together… I hope she doesn’t see [this]. She won’t be happy that I don’t remember, but I started dating her right before I first went to Hartley [Jackson’s] school, and that was really the thing that started everything. So like, she’s been with me throughout the whole thing. When we were in Japan, she’d come over whenever she could. I’d get home whenever I could, so we balanced that pretty well. Then we were doing good balancing it when I was in the States as well, and then she got pregnant, and that was a pretty rough pregnancy so, that was really rough.
We thought we lost little girl a couple of times. So like, we thought we lost her, and my wife was on bed rest for months, and then little girl came two weeks early, and she was perfectly healthy so, but now she’s almost three, and she’s a nightmare in the best possible way. But I always thought that I’d be able to juggle the two, but then I came home, my wife called me, said she was in labor, so I got on a plane straight away and came home and then just holding little girl and then I had to get back to work, so I was home for two weeks, and then I came back to the States, and it was just like, this is — I always thought I’d be able to [balance it, but I was like], ‘This is not gonna work’ so then, some soul searching there and then as much as it killed me, I wouldn’t change it because the amount of time I’ve spent with them now and the relationship I have with her now, the idea that-that wouldn’t be what it is, it’s just yeah.
I don’t even wanna think what it would’ve been like, so I don’t regret it, but it was obviously rough, pretty rough time. But, it’s worked out really well with the stuff in Japan, so once that starts up again because that’s a much better way to do it. Go over there for a couple weeks, come home for a couple weeks, go there, back and forth, back and forth as opposed to the — because my wife’s really family orientated so like, she’s very close with her mother and her sister and stuff like that, so I never wanted to be the one to force her to move over with me [and] do it like that, so I had to do the right thing and come home to her and like I said, I don’t regret it. I think it’s way better, and everything’s going good now. We just need the world to reopen so I can get back to work.”
Later in the interview, Nicholls was asked if he would like to reunite with his former TM-61 tag team partner, Shane Thorne, in the future. Nicholls says there is nothing he’d want more.
“Well, I think whenever me and Shane [Thorne] get together, I think it’s magic, so if we can make that happen, you never know what’s gonna happen,” Nicholls admitted. “Especially like you’re saying with the rumors [NJPW & WWE] and everything going around now, you never know what’s gonna happen, so like, there’s nothing I’d want more than to get back in the ring with him as my partner, and I think he kind of feels the same way so now it’s just a matter of seeing what happens, waiting it out and just playing it as it comes so to speak and then just going from that.
But it’s also fun just messing around, post stuff every now and then to get people going. Yeah, you know, you gotta keep the interest there, but it was actually quite flattering, the reaction to that kind of stuff because he put our picture up and then I put our picture up and then just seeing all the people, it was good. It’s always fun.”
READ MORE: Former NXT Star To Begin Run With NJPW, Joins CHAOS
Would you like to see TM-61 reunite in the future? Have you enjoyed Mikey Nicholls’ work since joining New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2019? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
